Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

African-Americans began arriving in drove in Detroit by the 1920′s, most settling in an area called Black Bottom, later named Paradise Valley. Some of the earliest blues took place in the bars, brothels and house parties in Paradise Valley. Among the early bluesman who worked in Detroit included several fine pianists like Speckled Red, Charlie Spand, Big Maceo, Will Ezell plus guitarists like Calvin Frazier and Blind Blake who cut who celebrated the city in songs like “Hastings Street” with Charlie Spand and “Detroit Bound.”

From the turn of the century until its demise by urban renewal in the early 1960′s, Hastings Street remained the center of business for Detroit’s east side community, made up largely of Jewish entrepreneurs and small black business owners.  Lined with two-story family-owned shops and corner taverns, Hastings teemed by day with shoppers; at night it became transformed, into, what John Lee Hooker later described, as a “rough wide-open street.” Though the city had a number of corner taverns during the 1940s and 1950s, which featured down home blues, numerous Detroit bluesmen found their first jobs in the house party scene. Among the early clubs were places like Henry’s Swing club celebrated in a song by John Lee Hooker, the Harlem Inn, The Palms, The Flame, Club Three Sixes and the Paradise Theater. While many artists, like Big Maceo, went to Chicago to record, there were a number of small local labels that documented the scene like Sensation, JVB, DeLuxe, Holiday, Staff and Fortune. With the demolition of Hasting Street in the 1950′s and early 60′s and the rise of Motown, blues in Detroit became overshadowed.

Today’s show focuses on recordings made from the late 1940′s on up spotlighting great Detroit artists like John Lee Hooker, Baby Boy Warren, Eddie Burns, Eddie Kirkland, Big Maceo, Boogie Woogie Red, Bobo Jenkins Calvin Frazier and more.

John Lee Hooker was the biggest star to emerge from the Detroit scene. Hooker headed to Memphis while he was still in his teens, but he couldn’t gain much of a foothold there. He then relocated to Cincinnati for a seven-year stretch before making the move to the Motor City in 1943. Hooker began playing in burgeoning club scene along Hastings Street and at house parties. In 1948 he hooked up with entrepreneur Bernie Besman (who ran Sensation label) , who helped him hammer out his solo debut sides, “Sally Mae” and its seminal flip, “Boogie Chillen.” The Los Angeles-based Modern Records issued the sides and “Boogie Chillen” made it to the peak of the R&B charts. Besman felt that Hooker would sound best if he was recorded as a soloist, and did a lot to give his guitar and voice distinctive sound. He put a mike on Hooker’s guitar, and put a speaker in a toilet bowl for echo. He also put a board under Hooker’s feet to pick up his tapping feet. One of his innovative ideas was to double-track the voice and guitar for “I’m in the Mood,” a technique that was very advanced for 1951; the result was another huge hit. Besman did plenty of sides with Hooker in the late 1940′s and early 1950s, often solo, but sometimes with accompanying musicians. When he moved to California in the early ’50s, Besman ended his association with Hooker and left the record business Along with Modern, Hooker recorded for King (as Texas Slim), Regent (as Delta John), Savoy (as Birmingham Sam & His Magic Guitar), Danceland (as Little Pork Chops), Staff (as Johnny Williams), Sensation, Gotham, Regal, Swing Time, Federal, Gone (as John Lee Booker), Chess, Acorn (as the Boogie Man), Chance, DeLuxe (as Johnny Lee), JVB, Chart, and Specialty; before finally settling down at Vee-Jay in 1955 under his own name.

Two artists closely linked to Hooker are Eddie Burns and Eddie Kirkland. “Papa’s Boogie,” Eddie Burns’ 1948 debut, is a harmonica/guitar duet recorded by Bernie Bessman and leased to the Holiday label, which issued it under the pseudonym Slim Pickens. Burns enjoyed a modestly successful musical career with a dozen records to his credit and a decade of weekend club gigs often with John Lee Hooker who waxed some of his best performances with Burn’s harmonica in support. Kirkland was brought up around Dothan, AL, before heading north to Detroit in 1943. There he hooked up with Hooker five years later, recording with him for several firms as well as under his own name for RPM in 1952, King in 1953, and Fortune in 1959. Exiting the Motor City for Macon, GA, in 1962, Kirkland signed on with Otis Redding as a sideman and show opener not long thereafter. By the dawn of the 1970s’, Kirkland was recording for Pete Lowry’s Trix labe and waxed several CD’s for Deluge in the ’90s.

Many artists got their start through Detroit record man Joe Von Battle. Recording his sessions from within a cluttered record shop on Detroit’s Hastings Street that he opened in 1948, Von Battle was a magnet for most of the Motor City’s blues and R&B talent, including such notables as John Lee Hooker, Eddie Kirkland, Eddie Burns plus a slew of lesser knowns. His efforts were issued on his JVB and Von labels. From its Cincinnati base, King Records would sometimes acquire masters from Detroit-based producers like Battle. Battle’s approach to ‘producing’ may have amounted to little more than turning the tape machine on and off but, in his ramshackle way, he preserved some great Detroit blues performances. “Pet Milk Blues” was the first release on first release by Joe Von Battle. Featuring Walter Mitchell’s own vocal and harp, second harp by Robert Richard, Boogie Woogie Red on piano, and an unknown bass. Mitchell cut six sides for JVB in 1948, with some leased to King, and cut two more sides in for Strate-8 in 1959. Guitarist L.C. Green came to Detroit in the late forties according to his one time partner, Woodrow Adams, who grew up with L.C. in Minter City, Mississippi. Green waxed seven songs in Detroit for Joe Von Battle, but six were leased out and only one appeared on the Von label. Nothing is know of fine bluesman James Walton who cut about a dozen-and-a-half sides for Detroit labels like JVB, Fortune and Big Star between 1954 and 1964.

Fortune Records was another notable Detroit label.Fortune specialized in R&B, blues, soul and doo-wop music, although the label also released pop, big band, hillbilly, gospel, rock ‘n’ roll, and even polka records. In spite of the spartan facilities, the company would produce some of the best preMotown R&B to come out of the city. Among the blues artists who recorded for the label were John Lee Hooker, Eddie Kirkland, Big Maceo, Bobo Jenkins, Doctor Ross, Grace Brim and Joe Weaver among others. It is estimated that Fortune Records and its subsidiaries, Hi-Q Records and Strate-8, released approximately 400 45-RPM vinyl records, as well as long-playing albums, during its existence. In the 1950′s Joe Weaver formed the Blue Notes typically practiced at producer/JVB label owner Joe Von Battle’s Hastings Street record store. Soon after Fortune hired the Blue Notes as its house band, and in addition to backing acts like Andre Williams and Nolan Strong, they also headlined records of their own. The Blue Note Orchestra’s stature as Detroit’s premier session band was firmly in place by the time Berry Gordy, Jr. hired their services for his fledgling Tamla label.

Big Maceo was already a seasoned pianist when he arrived in Detroit in 1924. After working around the Motor City scene, he headed to Chicago in 1941 to make his recording debut for Bluebird. He cut a series of terrific sessions as a leader for Bluebird in 1941-42, 1945 and in the company of Tampa Red before a stroke paralyzed his right side. He tried to overcome it, cutting for Victor in 1947 with Eddie Boyd assuming piano duties and again for Specialty in 1949 with Johnny Jones, this time at the stool. He cut his final sessions for Fortune in 1950 before passing in 1953.

Robert “Baby Boy” Warren cut some great records from 1949 to 1954 for a variety of Detroit labels without ever managing to transcend his local status along Hastings Street. After honing his blues guitar approach in Memphis (where he was raised), Warren came to Detroit in 1942 to work for General Motors and gig on the side. The fruits of his first recording session in 1949 with pianist Charley Mills supporting him came out on several different logos: Prize, Staff, Gotham, even King’s Federal subsidiary. A second date in 1950 that found him backed by pianist Boogie Woogie Red was split between Staff and Sampson while another sessions came out on Swing Time, Blue Lake and Excello. One of his most memorable sessions took place in 1954, when harpist Sonny Boy Williamson came to Detroit and backed Warren. The 1970s brought  Warren a some European touring  before he passed away in 1977.

Calvin Frazier began his career performing alongside his brothers, and in the company of Johnny Shines. He traveled to Helena, Arkansas in 1930 where they met Robert Johnson, and together the three men  journeyed north to Detroit, where they sang hymns on area gospel broadcasts. Upon returning south, Frazier and Johnson also joined with drummer Peck Curtis in a string-band combo. However, in 1935 Frazier was wounded in a Memphis shootout, which left another man dead; he fled back to Detroit, marrying Shines’ cousin. Apart from gigs supporting the likes of Big Maceo, Rice Miller and Baby Boy Warren, he resurfaced in 1938 long enough to cut a session for folklorist Alan Lomax. He did not record again until a 1951 date with T.J. Fowler’s jump band, and entered the studio one last time in 1954 with Baby Boy Warren. Frazier continued performing in the Detroit until his death on September 23, 1972.

It wasn’t until Washboard Willie AKA William Hensley was 31 years old that he decided to buy a washboard and begin to make music on it. He bought a wood and metal washboard, fastened a four-inch frying pan to one corner, put eight metal thimbles on his fingers, tied the board around his neck with a dog leash, and started beating away. In 1948 he moved north to Detroit and wasn’t until 1952, that he and a friend were out one night looking for John Lee Hooker, when they came upon Eddie Burns and his little group, playing at the Harlem Inn. After hearing the drummer playing out of time, Willie got his washboard from the car, and began playing along with the band. By the second song, the bar owner offered Hensley a job playing the washboard for the weekend. The band played there for three years. In 1956, he and Calvin Frazier recorded for Joe Von Battle. He continued to record for Von Battle from 1957 to 1962. In 1973, he toured with the American Blues Legends ’73 Tour, traveling all over Europe. He died on August 24, 1991, at the age of 82, in Detroit.

Playboy and Rocky Fuller are both early pseudonyms for New Orleans born Iverson Minter, who later had minor success using the name Louisiana Red. The sides included here are his first and typically were recorded in Von Battle’s basement.

Adams was raised in Detroit, Michigan by a relative, and got her break in the 1940s performing in a club on Hastings Street. Soon after she landed a recording contract with Chess Records and recorded alongside Red Saunders for the label. Her solo career did not lift off until the 1990′s, when she landed a contract with the now defunct Cannonball Records and recorded two albums for them. Adams recently returned to the studio at 91 years of age and recorded Detroit Is My Home for the same label,

T.J. Fowler assembled his own band and in 1947 accompanied saxophonist Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams on that artist’s first recordings for the Savoy label. Fowler began making records as a leader in 1948, beginning with small Detroit labels like Paradise and Sensation and landing his own contract with Savoy in 1952, sometimes featuring singer Alberta Adams. Fowler’s ensemble also used guitarist Calvin Frazier. In Detroit, Fowler and his men served as the backing band for T-Bone Walker and spent the next few years gigging around the Motor City and southeastern Michigan. Hired in 1959 by Berry Gordy, Fowler applied his music industry know-how to help Gordy create and establish the Motown record label. Fowler died in 1982.

Dr. Ross decided to fire his sidemen and carry on as a one-man band. A strong vocalist and excellent songwriter, Ross gained early experience playing Delta jukes and eventually landed radio shows in Clarksdale and Memphis, where he also recorded for Sam Phillips’s Sun label. At the peak of Ross’s career, he quit Sun, concerned that his royalties were being used to promote Elvis Presley’s recordings. Relocating in Michigan, he recorded for his own label and for several Detroit labels, while working for General Motors. Returning to music as a recording artist, he worked the festival circuit. Ross died May 28, 1993, and was buried in Flint, MI.

Though a Louisiana native, Vernon Harrison aka Boogie Woogie Red has been associated with the Detroit blues sound as long as anyone. A Motor City resident since 1927, he began performing in the local clubs as a teenager. As a sideman he worked locally with Sonny Boy Williamson, Baby Boy Warren, and John Lee Hooker. Despite Red’s renown for the blues and boogie-woogie style that earned him his nickname, he has recorded only a few times as a featured artist, and aside from a bit of European touring in the ’70s, he remained a local Detroit treasure, rarely appearing outside the area. He died in 1985.

Little Sonny moved to the Motor City in 1953 after growing up on his dad’s farm in Alabama.  Little Sonny worked the local haunts with John Lee Hooker, Eddie Burns, Eddie Kirkland, Baby Boy Warren, and Washboard Willie. In 1958, Sonny made his blues-recording debut, cutting for both Duke and local entrepreneur Joe Von Battle, who leased Little Sonny’s “Love Shock” to Nashville’s Excello label. During the early ’60s, he ran his tiny Speedway label. He leased “The Creeper” and “Latin Soul” to Detroit’s Revilot Records in 1966. That set the stage for his joining Stax’s Enterprise label in 1970; his first album was the largely instrumental New King of the Blues Harmonica. Two more Enterprise sets soon followed: Black & Blue and 1973′s Hard Goin’ Up. Not much was heard of the harpist in recent years until the British Sequel imprint released Sonny Side Up in 1995.

After his discharge from the army in 1944, Bobo Jenkins moved to Detroit. He soon got a job at the Packard Motor Company and on the side, managed a garage, before landing a job at Chrysler, where he worked for 27 years. He also got a job taking pictures at the Harlem Inn where John Lee Hooker was playing. Jenkins soon bought a guitar and began writing songs. In 1954, with the help of John Lee Hooker, “Democrat Blues” was recorded in Chicago for Chess Records. He recorded two more singles for the Boxer label in Chicago and Fortune Records in Detroit. he eventually formed his own label.The first record released on Jenkins’ Big Star label was his own: “You”ll Never Understand” and “Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night.” Soon he was recording and promoting local Detroit musicians. In 1972 he put out his first album on his Big Star label called The Life of Bobo Jenkins. The 1973 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival featured a special Detroit Blues Review and Jenkins was one of the stars. The next album by Jenkins came out in 1974, called Here I Am a Fool in Love Again on Big Star. In 1977 Detroit All Purpose Blues, was issued. In 1982, he went to Europe for his first tour, but due to poor health he returned home after the first concert. A long illness ultimately led to his death on August 14, 1984.